I am going to post my experience with cold water conditioning- the benefits and draw backs. First, I am 21 years old and have been using this method for about 10 months. I began taking regular showers and just lowering the temperature gradually. I eventaully began finishing my showers on the coldest setting. I then began staying in the cold spray longer and longer. The one draw back I have had from this is I must now start at what would have been 1/3 of the way through my cold cycle since the water before that feels too hot. I now take pretty solid cold showers.
My observations are as follows; in the 10 months, I have been sick twice and one time lasted less than a day. I believe this is due to CWC. I think (but have no proof) that CWC conditions the body to a) insulate itself b) pump large volumes of blood throughout the body c) take large amounts of oxygen in with every breath. A powerful breathing a circulatroy system minimize disease.
After about 15 secs (I've counted) in the water, I feel much happier.
My endurance increased without modifying my program.
I have less effects of stress on the body.
I will relate to you what happened to myself and my family between June and August, and the health consequences. My family moved in early June, being the young male, I did about 80% of the packing. During the day before, day of, and day after the move- I got 4 hours of sleep and 3 or 4 sandwiches. The day of the move, my grandmother fell ill and has since been moved to three different care facilities. We have moved her since the health care system does not cover it. On top of this, the movers lost several boxes (which have yet to be found). When we finally settled into our place and began unpacking- the oven broke in our apartment and the air conditioner broke for the entire floor! A week later- my gf's grandmother died suddenly. I relate all this not to tell you that I had a really sh-tty summer but to show you that was under constant stress for weeks. I wasn't exercising regularly, eating crap, worrying constantly and I sadly gained weight. I was also the only member of my family not to become violently ill. My sister, who had exams the week of the move had the worst flu I've seen in years. My mother and father both had to take 2 or 3 days just to recover from stress and flu-like symptoms. Me, I went to the bathroom once (feeling sick), decided that getting sick wouldn't help the situation and promptly took a very cold shower. I never got sick, I never needed a day off to relax. I "recovered" in my showers. People, this I believe is the true gift of cold water conditioning- your body will simple adapt to stress much more rapidly and your mind will find balance in the most unbalanced situations. While I stopped exercising and my diet went to hell and I gained weight- I kept my health and that got me through those long weeks in which I wondered if the old saying "May G-d never give you more than you can take." was coming to pass.
I apologize for being so long about this, but I felt the need the include so many details to communicate with you my experience with CWC.
MS

Martial shadow,
I started taking cold showers daily in January of this year. I have not been sick once, while people all around me seem to be sick all the time. A few nights ago, I did feel some chills and when my wife and I went to bed she said I felt as if I had a fever. I next morning I awoke feeling fine and got in my usual workout. I attribute my health to a combination of diet, workouts, vitamin supplementation, etc. However I have been doing all of those things for years and still getting the occasional cold, etc. This year I have not had any of that. the only real difference has been the showers! Maybe all in my head?? Who cares???

TZ- I do not know by what mechanism but I am conviced that some how CWC tapes into the bodies ability to deal with stress and this improves the bodies ability to deal with disease and sickness in huge degrees.
Crosstrain- Scott wrote about them in the past. Also, Samurai used to take very cold dunks as did German knights.
http://alliancemartialarts.com/cold.html
http://www.user.cityline.ru/~vniiam/
The info there is all you really need to know to start.
MS

There's been a lot of talk over on dragondoor.com about cold-water dousing. I gather that people are dumping several gallons over themselves after a workout. At one point someone posted a research article about the effects of short-term exposure to sudden cold. While long-term exposure to cold is generally accepted to run down the immune system (check out how many colds high-level x-country skiers get), short-term exposure had the reverse effect in this test. I think the test subjects were already warmed up and went back to a warm environment.

Dumping cold water after a workout. While this would accelerate a return to nominal conditions for the body, it may push too far the other way creating a very bad scenario. I'll think about that, maybe give it a try.

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